Wallabies select Sevens stars

The British

& Irish Lions

Tour to New Zealand 2017

Wallabies select Sevens stars

15 October 2010 12:02pm

By Westgate, Mike Brown

The Wallabies have named their squad

The Lions' next opponents have named their squad for their upcoming tour of Europe.

Robbie Deans has selected a youthful Wallabies squad which includes four members of Australia's silver-winning Commonweath Games Sevens side in a bid to blood them ahead of the 2011 World Cup and 2013 Lions tour.

Only Turner has been capped before, although Morahan featured as a replacement on last year's tour in the non-cap midweek match against Cardiff Blues.

But it is 21-year-old Phipps who has made the headlines as the shock inclusion in the squad. He will back up fellow young scrum-halves Will Genia and Luke Burgess.

Phipps was part of Sydney University's triumphant Shute Shield squad but has yet to play Super Rugby, although he will join the likes of Danny Cipriani and Gareth Delve at the Melbourne Rebels.

Deans has also included some experience in his squad having selected the evergreen Queensland Reds lock Van Humphries. Humphries made his state debut for Queensland a decade ago and has since enjoyed stints at the Waratahs, in Japan and Italy and at provincial level with North Harbour in New Zealand.

Despite the new faces, the Wallabies squad still has a familiar feel with the spine of the Tri-Nations team intact.

One player looking to make a big impact is Berrick Barnes. The Queenslander has endured an injury-ravaged couple of seasons and has seen Quade Cooper establish himself as one of the world's leading stand-offs.

''Luck hasn't fallen my way in the past, but this time around I've had a bit more game time before the tour, and hopefully that will help," Barnes told the Sydney Morning Herald.

"I was dealt a blow early in last year's tour, and other guys took the opportunity. Then there was the Super 14, and that was tough early on this year. But I'm happy with where I'm at now, and I feel that I'm playing some good footy again.

''The confidence is right up there. I am feeling really good going into this tour probably even better than I was last year.'

The Australian tour kicks-off in Hong Kong with the final Bledisloe Cup Test of the year against the All Blacks before the Wallabies travel to Europe for six matches through November, including games against Wales and England.

''We have built well, but haven't got over the All Blacks yet,'' explained Barnes.

''We have to kick that hoodoo, and Hong Kong would be a nice place to do it, to give us some confidence for the rest of the tour. We have done a lot of work the past few weeks in working on how to close games out. Hopefully, that will now come to fruition.''